Men's Lacrosse: Lehigh hangs on for 7-6 win over St. Joseph's

PHILADELPHIA – Lehigh earned a hard-fought 7-6 victory over Saint Joseph’s in the Mountain Hawks’ 2010 season opener on Sunday afternoon. The game, which was played at historic Franklin Field, was originally slated for Saturday but got re-scheduled due to the recent snowstorm. Lehigh jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on the Hawks and led 4-2 at halftime, but the Mountain Hawks found themselves down 6-5 in the second half before rallying for the 7-6 win. Sophomore Adam Johnston completed a hat trick with his game-winning goal in the final three minutes of play off an assist from freshman David DiMaria to move Lehigh to 1-0 in 2010. Saint Joseph’s falls to 0-2 following the setback.

“If you take a look at our hustle stats from today, we outshot our opponent, we out ground-balled them and I thought we carried the pace of play for the entire game,” Lehigh head coach Kevin Cassese said afterwards. “We battled back in the fourth quarter; I think we proved we could win the game in the first three quarters and we went out and showed it in the fourth. Give a lot of credit to Saint Joseph’s. Their zone defense baffled us. We are an inexperienced offense and it showed today.”

Cassese then singled out several Mountain Hawks who played impressive games on Sunday. “Will Scudder had a great day for us. He took every face-off and did a terrific job. Dan Carr had a strong game with a number of big saves and in front of him I thought Evan Guerrero did a great job with his play and setting the tone for the entire defense. We received great leadership from Kyle Gentile all afternoon long and David DiMaria was excellent in his first game.”

Complete statistics of today’s game are currently not available. Check back to Lehighsports.com later this evening for the complete stats.

Lehigh returns to the field next weekend when the Mountain Hawks head to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to face the nationally ranked Tar Heels on Saturday, February 20. The opening face-off is set for noon.

Cassese spoke of what Lehigh needs to focus on moving forward. “Fundamentals are the name of our game. When we make good decisions and we play our game, we are going to be a tough team to play, but if we aren’t executing and we’re not paying attention to detail we’ll be our own worst enemy. We need to continue to work on all the little things.”